Skies Safe Despite Air Control Equipment Failures, Federal Panel Says

January 24, 1996|By Gary Washburn, Tribune Transportation Writer.

The nation's air traffic control system is safe, but the "normal margin" of safety has been reduced by equipment outages at control facilities around the country, including Chicago, federal safety officials concluded Tuesday.

Completing an investigation begun last year, the National Transportation Safety Board also found that many controllers are not proficient on backup computer systems that activate when primary systems malfunction and that the retirement of skilled technicians has hurt the Federal Aviation Administration's ability to maintain and repair important air traffic equipment.

FAA officials said Tuesday the agency already has begun to take action to correct problems pointed out by the safety board.

But a controllers union official questioned the basic finding.

"It's a nice political way to say the public should not be concerned because everything is safe," said Ron Downen, a local vice president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. "But yet they say that when we use backup systems, the margin of safety decreases. So which is it?"

The safety board launched its investigation last year after an alarming series of computer outages at the Chicago Air Route Traffic Control Center in Aurora and four other major facilities that have 25-year-old IBM computer equipment.

Even more troubling than the computer problems, investigators found during their probe, have been breakdowns of communications equipment and power supply systems at some of the air traffic facilities.

"Air traffic controllers told investigators that they believe these issues present the most significant safety concerns because they can result in a loss of radio contact with airplanes," said an abstract of the report released by the board.

New electric power and voice communications systems being installed nationally promise improvements, though the FAA should "identify and address" certain communications deficiencies likely to remain even after the systems come on line, the report said.

Meanwhile, the FAA has committed to install a new computer to temporarily replace the old IBM computer at Chicago Center next year. A permanent replacement system is expected in 1999.

In the meantime, "the more outages we have, the more chances we have of an accident," Downen said. "No one in the FAA or the safety board is going to say it is unsafe until, God forbid, there is an accident. Hopefully, that will not happen, and in two years we'll get new equipment."

The FAA already has decided to hire additional technicians and increase some controller training, and it also hopes to revamp policies to permit incentive pay where needed, according to agency officials.

"We will review and analyze these recommendations," said Monte Belger, the FAA's associate administrator for air traffic services. "Taken along with other recent reviews, this work by the National Transportation Safety Board will help us improve system reliability."